Instructor: Prof. Sue Peabody
Office: VMMC 202D (360) 546-9647
Fax: (360) 546-9036
e-mail: peabody@vancouver.wsu.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 9:00-9:30 pm and Wednesdays 2:45-4:00 pm, and by appt.
Class meets: via WHETS on the following Fridays at 10:35-11:50:
1/12, 2/2, 2/16, 3/9, 4/6, 4/20
Vancouver: CL 117 Pullman: Murrow 52
Course Description
Europe experienced profound economic, political, and cultural changes during the early modern period, 1400-1800. These have generally been studied (and taught) through focusing on Europe's elites. In this class, we will be reading about and discussing Europe's "common" people and the ways that they created and disseminated their own cultural beliefs and ideas. What is popular culture? How does it differ from elite culture? Does one impact the other? How do politics, technology, religion, gender and other social and ideological factors influence the creation, dissemination and reception of popular culture in Europe?
10% Attendance and Participation: Attendance is required at all class meetings: Fridays, 10:35-11:50: 1/12, 2/2, 2/16, 3/9, 4/6, 4/20.
40% Historiographical Précis
10% Preliminary Bibliography
15% Primary Source Analysis
25% Research
Paper
These books are
available through The Bookie. You might be able to find them on-line through www.powells.com, www.amazon.com or, used: www.alibris.com.
Darnton, Robert. The Great Cat Massacre. New York: Knopf, 1985. 0-394-72927-7. $14.95
Davis, Natalie Zemon. The Return of Martin Guerre. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983. 0-674-76691-1 $16.95.
Farge, Arlette. The Vanishing Children of Paris: Rumor and Politics before the French Revolution (Harvard 1993, 2004) paper: 0674931947. $21.50.
Ginzburg, Carlo. The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. 0801843864. $19.95.
Muir, Edward. Ritual in Early Modern Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005) 0-521-60240-8. $24.99
Paul Barber, Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality.
Andrew W. Brown,
Popular Piety in Late Medieval England: The Diocese of Salisbury, 1250-1550.
Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe
Natalie Zemon
Davis, Society and Culture in Early
Modern France
Dugaw, Diane. Warrior Women and Popular Balladry, 1650-1850
Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms
G. Huppert, After the Black Death: A Social History of Early Modern Europe
Emmanuel Le Roy
Ladurie, Carnival in Romans
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou
Brian P. Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe
Robert
Rapley, A Case of Witchcraft: The Trial of Urbain Grandier
Lyndal Roper, Oedipus and the Devil: Witchcraft, Sexuality and Religion in Early Modern Europe
David Sabean, Power in the Blood: Popular Culture and Village Discourse in Early Modern Germany
James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance:
Hidden Transcripts
M. Spufford, Small Books and Pleasant Histories: Popular Fiction in 17th Century England
Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic
In these short essays, be sure to address the following questions: What is the author’s thesis? What kinds of historical evidence does the argument rely upon (e.g. letters, court records, diaries, governmental reports) and how does this kind of evidence shape the historian’s conclusions? How does this work relate to others you have read this semester for this course? What do you see as the major strengths and weaknesses of this work? Do you see any important omissions, errors of fact or logic? The précis should read like a book review, that is: aimed at someone who has not read the work and in a fluid, essay format (i.e., not disconnected answers to a series of implied or specified questions).
Select a topic from the following list or develop one of your own:
q Witchcraft
q Popular Medicine, Healing
q Folklore, storytelling
q Popular rebellions, uprisings
q Games (especially as they relate to the social order)
q Carnival, festivals, popular celebrations
q Rituals (e.g. non-official religious or spiritual practices, guild initiations)
q Beliefs/practices around Food or Drink
q Culture of Work
q Popular Music
q Crime and the law (how does the law suppress popular culture?)
q Impact of Literacy on Popular Culture (e.g. pulp novels)
q New technologies and popular culture (e.g. early photography, film)
q Popular forms of education (e.g. hedge schools)
q Commercialization, Consumer Culture
q Gender, Cross-dressing (e.g. women who become soldiers)
You should plan to narrow your topic by region or country and be able to conduct primary research in the original language.
Submit a preliminary bibliography on (approved) topic of your choice with at least 15 scholarly entries, 12 of which must not be listed on the class syllabus, including at least 5 articles and 6 books. Include, at the beginning, a brief paragraph describing the topic that you are researching, including what you hope or expect to find, along with any difficulties that you anticipate encountering. This will be the basis of your Research Paper, below.
Some recommended sources to find these works are:
· Databases: American History and Life (for North American History) and Historical Abstracts (for non-US History). http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/ref/history.html
· Journal: Slavery and Abolition http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/0144039x.asp
In this essay with bibliography (8-10 pages), discuss the range of
primary sources available to study your early modern European popular culture
topic. These can include:
· modern published editions or reprints of primary sources
· archival collections
· scholarly collections of primary sources available on the internet
· texts, images, material culture
Be sure to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these sources in terms of evidence for aspects of popular culture, their accessibility to you or other scholars (especially the originals, if you are working primarily with editions or reproductions), whether they have already been used by other scholars to answer similar questions.
In seminar paper, you should:
· argue an original thesis concerning your topic in early modern European popular culture
· discuss the historiography that is relevant to your topic
· base your argument on evidence from primary sources
· conclude by discussing how further research on this topic might proceed.
Assignments
Week |
Date
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(Graduate Only Marked ***) For class meetings (***) you are responsible for reading everything (graduate and undergraduate) up to that point in the semester. |
Précis |
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1 |
M 1/8 |
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W 1/10 |
William Beik, “Popular Culture and Elite Repression in Early Modern Europe” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 11:1 (1980): 97-103. via JSTOR Electronic Reserve: Peter Burke, “Popular Culture Reconsidered” Storia della Storiografia 1990 (17): 40-49. |
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***F 1/12 |
Course Orientation |
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2 |
M 1/15 |
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: No Classes |
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W 1/17 |
Carlo Ginzburg, Night Battles, 1-145 |
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3 |
M 1/22 |
Carlo Ginzburg, Night Battles, Appendix |
Ginzburg |
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W 1/24 |
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4 |
M 1/29 |
Muir, Edward. Ritual in Early Modern Europe, Introduction and Part I (1-80) *** Preliminary Research Bibliography due (email to Prof. Peabody) |
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W 1/31 |
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***F 2/2 |
*** Theory of Popular CultureEverybody reads: Geertz,
Clifford. “Thick Description: Toward an
Interpretative Theory of Culture.” In The Interpretation of Cultures.
New York: Basic Books, 1973. http://www.iwp.uni-linz.ac.at/lxe/sektktf/gg/GeertzTexts/Thick_Description.htm In addition, read your assignment from the following
list. Report to class: Author’s thesis, theory, in debate with whom?
over what issues? Redfield,
Robert. “The Social Organization of Tradition” The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 1. (Nov., 1955), pp.
13-21. Chartier, Roger. "Culture as Appropriation." Understanding Popular Culture: Europe from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century. Berlin: Mouton, 1984, pp. 230-53. Bob Scribner, "Is a History of Popular Culture Possible?" History of European Ideas 10 (1989), pp. 175-91. Peter Burke, "Popular Culture Reconsidered", in Mensch und Objekt im Mittelalter und in der fruehen Neuzeit: Leben, Alltag, Kultur, Vienna: Verlag der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990, pp. 181-191. Geertz, Hildred. “An Anthropology of Religion and Magic, I” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 6:1 (Summer, 1975): 71-89 JSTOR Thomas, Thomas. “An Anthropology of Religion and Magic, II,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 6:1 (Summer, 1975): 91-109 JSTOR Discussion: Beik, Burke,
Ginzburg, Geertz + others: What is Popular Culture? What is its relationship
to elite culture? |
1-2 para-graphs per article
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5 |
M 2/5 |
Muir, Edward. Ritual in Early Modern Europe, Part II (81-146) |
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W 2/7 |
Class Canceled |
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6 |
M 2/12 |
Muir, Edward. Ritual in Early Modern Europe, Part III (147-275) |
Muir |
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W 2/14 |
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***F 2/16 |
***Select one book from the Supplement Book List, above. Submit a (1-2 pp., single-spaced) Précis to Dr. Peabody by Thursday, 2/15 at midnight for discussion in class the next day: Discussion: Muir + Supplemental Books |
Supp. Book |
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7 |
M 2/19 |
President’s Day: No Class |
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W 2/21 |
Davis, Natalie Zemon. The Return of Martin Guerre. vii-ix, 1-125 |
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8 |
M 2/26 |
Film in class |
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W 2/28 |
Film in class |
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9 |
M 3/5 |
JSTOR: Robert Finlay, "The Refashioning of Martin Guerre" American Historical Review 93:3 (1988): 553-571 and Natalie Zemon Davis, "`On the Lame'" American Historical Review 93:3 (1988):572-603 |
Davis (x2) & Finlay |
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W 3/7 |
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***F 3/9 |
***Select one book from the Supplement Book List, above. Submit a (1-2 pp., single-spaced) Précis to Dr. Peabody by Thursday, 3/8 at midnight for discussion in class the next day: Discussion: N.Z. Davis, Finlay, + Supplemental BooksYour Research Project |
Supp. Book |
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3/12- 3/16 |
Spring Break |
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10 |
M 3/19 |
Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre, 3-7, 9-72 |
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W 3/21 |
Robert Darnton, The
Great Cat Massacre, 76-104 |
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11 |
M 3/26 |
Roger Chartier, “Text, Symbols, and Frenchness” Journal of Modern History 57 (1985): 682-95. Robert Darnton, “The Symbolic Element in History” Journal of Modern History 58 (1986): 219-34. Both of these articles are accessible electronically
through the JSTOR database: http://dewey.vancouver.wsu.edu/library/subjdbs.cfm?SubjectCode=18 |
Darnton + Chartier |
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W 3/28 |
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12 |
M 4/2 |
Arlette Farge, The Vanishing
Children of Paris, 1-132 |
Farge |
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W 4/4 |
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***F 4/6 |
***Primary Source Analysis Discussion: Darnton, Chartier, Farge, primary sources |
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13 |
M 4/9 |
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W 4/11 |
Article is available online: Search in Griffin under journal title. Peabody, Sue. “`A Dangerous Zeal’: Catholic Missions to Slaves in the French Antilles” French Historical Studies 25:1 (2002): 53-91. Dubois, Laurent. “Vodou and History.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 43:1 (2001): 92-100. |
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14 |
M 4/16 |
Undergraduate Oral Presentations
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W 4/18 |
Undergraduate Oral Presentations |
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***F 4/20 |
***Discussion of
your research project thus far |
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Th, F |
4/19-20 |
Vancouver Research
Showcase |
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15 |
M 4/23 |
Articles are available online: Search in Griffin under journal title. Reis, Joao Jose. Batuque: African Drumming and Dance Between Repression and Concession, Bahia, 1808-1855.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 24:2 (2005): 201-214. Chvaicer, Maya Talmon. “The Criminalization of Capoeira in Nineteenth-Century Brazil.” Hispanic American Historical Review 82:3 (2002): 525-547. |
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W 4/25 |
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Finals |
M 4/30 |
*** Final Paper Due via email to Prof. Peabody |
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